BEIJING – VP Joe Biden visited The Great Wall today and told the Chinese that the Great Wall “must come down.”

BEIJING – VP Joe Biden visited The Great Wall today and told the Chinese that The Great Wall “must come down.”

Vice President Joe Biden, known for his public-speaking prowess, made a gaffe-filled speech at The Great Wall near Beijing.

On his first full day in China, where Mr. Biden is “building relations” with Chinese Vice President Xi Jingping, they headed to The Great Wall. American and Chinese press were allowed to accompany the Vice President and listen to his opening remarks.

The Chinese were stunned when the Vice President opened his speech with “”Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) – which was what John F. Kennedy told West Germans at the Berlin Wall in 1963. The Chinese, who feel it is important to “save face” did not want to correct Biden and tell him that he was in China, not West Germany, or that is 2011 not 1963.

Maybe they should have stopped him, because the Vice President became even more animated and passionate. He repeatedly slammed his fist on the podium and yelled, “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!”

That was all the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, could take. He had his interpreter whisper in Biden’s ear telling the Vice President that he was in China. The Vice President was unfazed.

“I know I am in China. I think this wall has to come down so that the Egyptians can once again have access to the Gulf. Mr. Jinato, tear down this wall!” The Vice President then stepped off the podium and tumbled down six flights of stairs on The Great Wall.

Mr. Biden continued the rest of his relationship-building trip. He attended The Good Will games and watched an exhibition game between American and Chinese basketball teams. . After Biden got up and, cheering on the Americans, shouted “kill these Chinese, kill ’em baby!”

The incredible fight between the Georgetown University men’s basketball team and the Bayi Rockets forced the game on Thursday night in Beijing to end early.
Players exchanged blows, chairs were thrown and spectators tossed full water bottles as players and coaches headed to the locker room.

Biden later told the Chinese – “see, if you tear down the wall, this kind of thing won’t happen again. It’s time to stop playing chopsticks and time to start putting some Kung Pow on that Wall. Capisce?”